Epic Games will offer $100 million in Fortnite prize pool funding for the game's first year of competitive play

Fortnite's eSports debut is on the way

Fortnite has taken the Battle Royale genre by storm lately. Last month, we reported the game's mobile port had raked in a whopping $15 million in microtransaction revenue within its first month on the App Store.

That may not sound terribly impressive compared to the likes of Candy Crush, but it's worth noting those numbers only account for iOS players - Fortnite isn't available to Android users as of writing.

Fortnite has even surpassed the wildly-popular PUBG as far as revenue goes, likely because the former is free-to-play and considerably more polished than the latter.

With this success in mind, it's no surprise to see developer Epic Games turn their gaze towards the realm of eSports. In a blog post published today, Epic Games announced their decision to provide $100 million in prize pool funding for the game's "2018 - 2019" competitive season.

Epic claims their approach to competitive play will be "different" and "more inclusive," though it's not entirely clear what either of those phrases is referring to. The company plans to announce details about Fornite Battle Royale's competitive "structures and eligible platforms" in the coming weeks.

Although this is the first time Fortnite has officially embraced competitive play, third parties have been interested in the game's tournament potential for some time. For example, Ohio's Ashland University announced in April that they would offer students a $4,000 eSports scholarship, specifically referencing Fortnite.